Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-01-27
Feeding For Growth or Fat.
Philadelk hia Record.


Simply feeding an animal without some
definite object in view is to waste the food
or else deprive the animal of something 1T
NAV require unless the farmer knows the
quality of the food given and the nutr1-
tive value of the ingredients of which 1t
is composed. So Important is knowledge
of the proper mode of feeding that 1t is
often possible to produce more perfect
animal from grade than from thor
oughbred, and Darwin expresses the
opinion that the quality of the food IN
fuences variation in animals, and that
when improvement is attempted by judi
cioas breeding the result is large
Iy influenced by the mode and
periods of feeding, as also by the
quality and kinds of food used.
normal condition cannot be sustained
in an animal except by mixed diet. No
single article of food used for domestic
animals can be regarded as complete or
containing the proper proportions of the
necessary elements of growth and warmth.
Certain foods, rich in nitrogen, are re-
CURED for producing flesh. These foods
are knCCyn as 'fesh formers" and are de-
rived from the gluten Of grains, the legu-
men of clover, and from the different
forms of nitrogen Ia all the plants used
as food, being transformed in the body
of the animal into flesh and to supply
the natural waste of the muscles and car
tilages, the surplus being impaired to the
products of the animal, as case in milk
or aIbumen in eggs from birds.
A proper division and classification of
the foods enables the farmer to appropri-
ate the elements particularly adapted for
the accomplishment of the production of
flesh, milk, butter, or fat, for while the
organic matter Astounding in nitrogen is
more suitable for fesh-forming, that por-
tion free from nitrogen, known as carbo-
hydrates, contains starch, sugar and fatty
oils, in order to supply the fatty matter,
while the earthly phosphates repair and
renew the bones.
As the constituents of an animals body
must come from the food, 1t is not pest
to feed the starchy substances to young
animals exclusively, when growth is de-
sired, which explains the cause of lack
of thrift when straw or coarse hay is
used, as the animal cannot eat enough OF
such substances in order to supply itself.
Nor can we expect the best results from
such grains as corn, which con-
tains large proportion of starch
and oil, with a small amount OF flesh
combined with clover hay the elements
are more evenly divided; yet even in the
combination of the two foods time would
show that some element might be lack
ing, and change of food would be ne
cessary.
It is more economical to feed a variety,
espec ally to growing stock, which de-
mand more nitrogen and the phosphates
than do those more matured, the first
must not only renew waste but add to the
flesh end bone, while the adult is required
only to renew waste. An adult animal
therefore voids the excess of heterogeneous
material and as a consequence the ma
nure from a mature animal is more Valu-
able than that from one which has not
completed growth. An adult animal also
fattens at less cost; therefore, as but
small proportion of nitrogen is required,
the mode of feeding depends upon the
age, and the objects desired 80 be OBJ
tanned.